must spread around

Rich/mods,

Since we no longer track rep points is there a way to unrestrict the "you must spread some reputation around" popup. I don't remember to use it a bunch but seems every time I do I get the you must spread it around popup. Thanks.

Or put it back the way it was??? In exchange for user pages or something??

Yes!

I'll happily trade user pages for rep if that will free up server space.

I miss rep. But I wasn't around when it went away, it always seemed to have huge potential for creating "teams." And nothing is more lame than Internet forum teams. I figured it was more that than server space.

There's probably not a way to see every post I've repped, that I got something useful out of.

A tool/feature such as that would be wonderful.

Actually I do have to do something about the rep system one of these days. It's pretty much become useless since the numbers involved have become so HUGE that it doesn't really mean anything any longer. One or two people "repping" another can completely saturate their rating in one fell swoop. Heck, look at the green bars in this thread alone. EVERYONE is maxed out.

So yeah, SOMETHING definitely needs to be done about it.

I guess I would need to adjust the values used in determining an initial rep power and then zero out EVERYONE to start over again. There isn't going to be any way to retain values and do a proportional reduction. So EVERYONE would start from scratch, with initial rep powers set to an algorithmic value based on the setup criteria I have to use for this function.

I just need to figure out which criteria should be considered most pertinent in making it actually MEAN what it is supposed to mean.

Would that cause you all a lot of heartburn?

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Actually I do have to do something about the rep system one of these days. It's pretty much become useless since the numbers involved have become so HUGE that it doesn't really mean anything any longer. One or two people "repping" another can completely saturate their rating in one fell swoop. Heck, look at the green bars in this thread alone. EVERYONE is maxed out.

So yeah, SOMETHING definitely needs to be done about it.

I guess I would need to adjust the values used in determining an initial rep power and then zero out EVERYONE to start over again. There isn't going to be any way to retain values and do a proportional reduction. So EVERYONE would start from scratch, with initial rep powers set to an algorithmic value based on the setup criteria I have to use for this function.

I just need to figure out which criteria should be considered most pertinent in making it actually MEAN what it is supposed to mean.

Would that cause you all a lot of heartburn?

Not at all. Starting from scratch is totally fine if it means having an effective system.

Not one bit.

It was just a good way to be able to tell someone you _liked_ their post, without 10 people in the thread saying the same thing. When you go to the trouble to make a thread that is well-thought out, with informaiton and pics, it's _nice_ for people to be able to say, hey, that post was useful to me, thank you.

What if it didn't even count rep? Is the tracking of it the part that is cumbersome? It got bad when it got limited, but not because you couldn't add up a bunch of reps on one person, or a lot of people, at a time. It was (is) bad because now it's so rare to be actually able to use it that it's a joke, and 90% of the time I think we forget it's even a feature. I personally couldn't care less about some arbitrary number.

Been a while since I've looked at the nuts and bolts of it, but I believe the "keeping score" part of it is inherent to the system. First off the "power" part of it generates a score for each member based on selected criteria, and that power can be partially distributed to other members when desired. Once members start giving rep to other members, then the numbers change, and if set up that way, can alter the amount of rep power the recipient now has.

Trying to set it up so that abuses don't get everyone just pissed off at the whole thing is tricky. How do you keep people from being "rep buddies", who constantly ratchet up each other's rep scores over and over again? Is it fair to initially bump up the rep power based on amount of time here on the site at all? Or should it be solely based on RECEIVED rep? Should post count count for rep?

And then there is the issue of negative rep, which can be a real good way to just piss off people if not handled and managed judiciously.

If I get a chance later on, I'll post a screen shot of the admin panel for rep so you all can see the options I have to play with so you know where I am coming from with all this.